Author Affiliations: Department of Psychiatry, College of Physicians and Surgeons of Columbia University (Drs Walsh, Seidman, and Gould), and New York State Psychiatric Institute (Drs Walsh, Seidman, Gould, and Ms Sysko), New York, NY.

AbstractContext Intense debate persists about the need for placebo-controlled groups in clinical trials of medications for major depressive disorder (MDD). There is continuing interest in the development of new medications, but because effective antidepressants are already available, ethical concerns have been raised about the need for placebo groups in new trials.

Objective To determine whether the characteristics of placebo control groups in antidepressant trials have changed over time.

Data Sources and Study Selection We searched MEDLINE and PsychLit for all controlled trials published in English between January 1981 and December 2000 in which adult outpatients with MDD were randomly assigned to receive medication or placebo. Seventy-five trials met our criteria for inclusion.

Data Extraction Data were extracted from the articles by 2 of the authors and discrepancies were resolved via discussion and additional review by a third author.

Data Synthesis The mean (SD) proportion of patients in the placebo group who responded was 29.7% (8.3%) (range, 12.5%-51.8%). Most studies examined more than a single active medication, and, in the active medication group with the greatest response, the mean (SD) proportion of patients responding was 50.1% (9.0%) (range, 31.6%-70.4%). Both the proportion of patients responding to placebo and the proportion responding to medication were significantly positively correlated with the year of publication (for placebo: n = 75; r = 0.45; 95% confidence interval [CI], 0.25-0.61; P<.001; for medication: n = 75; r = 0.26; 95% CI, 0.03-0.46; P = .02). The association between year of publication and response rate was more statistically robust for placebo than medication.

Conclusions The response to placebo in published trials of antidepressant medication for MDD is highly variable and often substantial and has increased significantly in recent years, as has the response to medication. These observations support the view that the inclusion of a placebo group has major scientific importance in trials of new antidepressant medications and indicate that efforts should continue to minimize the risks of such studies so that they may be conducted in an ethically acceptable manner.

"How do you explain your position in regard to your lawyer since it'sinconsistent with many recorded facts? If you can't don't you see that inthis matter you are being illogical, unreasonable and self-deluded? Howdo you intend dealing with the negative and harmful consequences youractions will almost certainly have on Seroxat litigants?"source -http://groups.yahoo.com/group/uksurvivors/message/44051

Bob Fiddaman's Seroxat withdrawal group tel - 0121 624 0473

I would therefore like to ask you if you could ask your readers if anyonehas experienced difficulties with the drug 'Seroxat' to contact me atfi...@blueyonder.co.uk.

If you need to telephone me to discuss this matter further then I can becontacted on 0121 624 0473

Fiddy said. ".where can I buy stun guns from"

FIDDY advised to use - washing up bottle filled with a liquid that contains ammonia

Electrical stun guns are 'prohibited weapons' underSection 5 of the Firearms Act 1968.A washing up bottle filled with a liquid that contains ammonia or something equally nasty, however, is not a prohibited weapon. .

--Jonathan Spencer, firearms examiner

Listen for yourself to the weasel words of Mark Harvey

Watch Mark Harvey on former reporter Noreen Bray's show - Week in Week out (27 min in) BBC Wales.Listen for yourself to the weasel words of Mark Harvey, partner at Hugh James exactly as recorded by the BBC here - http://web.archive.org/web/20061018054241/www.bbc.co.uk/wales/weekinweekout